How did the Viking era come to an end?

The Viking era only ended when the raids stopped in 1066 after the Battle of Stamford Bridge and The Norwegian king Haraldr was  killed when he  attempted to claim a portion of England. It was the last major Viking raid in Europe.

The battle of Stamford bridge was the Vikings final battle

In September 1066 the Viking King Harald Hardrada, landed in Yorkshire in the hopes of taking over the English throne. The English king at the time was king Harold Godwinson . He had been faced with the difficult decision of whether he should go to the north to confront and try to stop Harald Hardrada, leaving the south unprotected against William of Normandy who was also after the throne,or remain where he was so he was ready for the Norman invasion.  He chose to go to north, hoping he would be able to defeat  Hardrada and being able to return to the south in time to confront William. Harold did end up defeating William Normandy and the Vikings but he died three weeks later at the battle of Hastings. Most Vikings families  mixed in with people from other countries as they were afraid the king would persecute them for being Vikings. The other Vikings that were already living in England agreed to be ruled under Harold's rein and were forced in Christianity.  

A Viking rune stone found in Upsala Sweden

it says  "Thorkunn and Bruni had this monument made

 in memory of their father Igulfast" , from the website    

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/evidence_01.shtml

After this the raids started to stop because the times changed and Vikings didn't need to raid villages any more. Monk monasteries who had always been an easy target for Viking raids,started to move inward away from where the Vikings could reach them and some even started building defence towers so they were prepared for attacks. Many people think the entire Viking population had died out after their final battle, but this, like many other beliefs about the Vikings, is untrue. The remaining Vikings simply joined other villages and adapted to their way of life. Christianity was also one of the causes of the breakdown of the Viking era as many converted their beliefs from pagan to Christian and started to rethink the they acted and lived. We know the Vikings all didn't die out from the artefacts they left such as runes made after the battle of Stamford bridge. The Vikings did not become familiar with the Roman alphabet until after they started becoming Christian so we know that if runes were around after this, they had not forgotten their Viking ways.


Sources
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/evidence_01.shtml

http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/society/text/what_happened.htm

Viking Gods and Religion

Although many people do not know this,the Vikings were actually pagans who had many gods. they lived in a land called Asgard and They often travelled down a bridge of rainbows to visit the human world which was know as Middle Earth. The Scandinavian legends and myths about ancient heroes, gods, and how the world was created was  developed out of the original common mythology of Germanic people and their beliefs. Although the Vikings had many different gods their greatest one was Odin who they believed was the king of the gods.This had many gods and goddesses, who lived in a separate world called

Odin

A primary source image of Odin with huginn and muninn on his shoulders

Odin was the Vikings greatest god and was the god of wisdom, magic, poetry and war. He had two black ravens called huginn (thought) and muninn (memory) who would fly across the lands and every day and bring back Odin back information on what was happening throughout his lands. It was said that Odin sacrificed one of his eyes so he could drink from the fountain of wisdom also known as  the mimir. Odin had three wives called Fjorgyn, Frigga and Rind who were all earth goddesses. 

Thor 

Thor was the eldest son of Odin and Fjorgyn and was the god of thunder, the sky, fertility and the law.

 Thor is  usually portrayed as a large, powerful man with red hair and a red beard and eyes of lightning.

He carries around his hammer which in viking mythologhy is said to be extremly powerful and can only be

 used by Thor himself. Thor had three children called Magni  modi and Thrud who are all from different mothers.

A painting depicting What the Vikings believed Thor
looked like.

Loki

Loki is known as the 'wizard of lies' and was one of most evil Gods in Viking mythology. He was the sworn enemy of the Gods and was said to be good looking, but mischievous, cunning and  not trustworthy. one of his wives,Sygin, was the complete opposite of Loki and was portrayed as the most loyal and sweet woman on the earth. Some of his children included Hel, ruler of the dead, Jormungand, The World Serpent and The Fenrir Wolf.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2590942/The-Viking-Era

What do we know of the Vikings from what archaeologists have found?

For 300 hundred years the Vikings controlled and visited parts of Scandinavia and other countries and left behind thousands of artefacts such as chess pieces, coins, brooches, helmets, boats, ice skates and even houses. Archaeologists have even proved that Vikings visited parts of North america from pieces of wool found there made from the same material as Viking clothes. 

What Scientists believe an adult

Viking woman looked like

Often we imagine tall, dirty scarred men when we think of the Vikings, when in fact it has been discovered that the Vikings were actually 8-10 cm shorter than what we are today and were often only marked by the hard work they put into everyday life not necessarily from battles and fights.We are able to know what they look like, what they wore, the colour of their hair and what an individuals life was like all from the bones Archaeologists have found. for example, Archaeologists have also discovered that men had more feminine features and women had more masculine features such as more pronounced jawbone probably and bigger eyebrows, probably because men were believed to put in more effort into looking good, often to get the attention of a woman they liked. 

A real Viking helmet that does not
display horns on the side

A common myth about the Vikings was that they wore horned helmets in battle. Archaeologists have found no proof to say that their helmets had horns and this myth was likely just made up in a story. The reason their helmets didn't have horns was because they would have gotten in the way in battles and may have ended up injuring the wearer. real Viking helmets actually  had protective metal down and around the ears and some helmets found in burial mounts had a metal mask in front. Viking vessels also helped shape what we know about the Vikings and how we see them. If  Archaeologists never discovered these massive ships, many questions would remain unsolved and we wouldn't be able to trace to them to other countries. Viking vessels also served as resting places for dead lords and their animals.

     

Sources 

http://www.anmm.gov.au/webdata/resources/pdfs/schools/Viking_Teacher_Resources.pdf

http://sciencenordic.com/what-vikings-really-looked

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/dig_reports_01.shtml

Who were the Vikings and where did they come from?

A map showing The Vikings rein

The Vikings were a civilisation of people that lived from 700 AD to 1100 AD. Originally they came from Denmark, Norway and Sweden although many Vikings left these Scandinavian countries and travelled to other places such as Britain and Ireland in search of wealth or fortune.  Some historians believe that another reason Vikings left their homes was because their villages had become overpopulated and the land was not suitable enough to farm on so they settled in warmer countries such as Ireland and Britain and became farmers, craftsmen or traders. The word 'Viking' comes from a language called 'Old Norse' and means 'a pirate raid'. When we think of the Vikings we often imagine giant, terrifying people who did nothing but raid villages and kill innocent victims, but this actually an untrue fact.  During this era there were actually more hairstyles available for men then there were for women which goes to show how much men valued their appearance and took pride in looking good.    

A pair of Viking tweezers

Although Viking men did raid villages and attack people archaeologists have discovered many personal grooming items such as combs, tweezers, ear spoons, razors and nail cleaners which shows that the Vikings were not as unhygienic as we think and did take pride in their appearance. Recent skeletons found also showed that Viking men filed their teeth. Although Archaeologists are still unaware why they did this, they believe it may have represented some type of achievement.  


Sources
http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/2006/02/0203_060203_viking_teeth_2.html

http://www.skwirk.com.au/p-c_s-56_u-473_t-1288_c-4947/VIC/7/Daily-life-of-Norse-people/The-Viking-life/The-Vikings/SOSE-History/

What Benefits have come from the Black Death?

The black death was the cause of the peasants revolt
and many other riots that helped shape our world

Before the Black Death struck in the 13^th century, the streets and the cities were overcrowded with people, animals and rubbish. But after the plague left in the 1350’s one third (25-50 million) of Europe’s population had died out.  Although this is only a rough guess and it is not known exactly how many people died, thousands of mass graves have been uncovered all through Europe and England filled with countless bodies of plague victims. Despite the fact that millions of people were wiped out by the Black Death, many benefits have come from it such as better doctors and a wider understanding of medicine and diseases. In the middle ages, Doctors had more faith in magic and religion and most did not believe that science could help cure an illness. But after the Black Death struck more people started becoming interested in diseases and medicine and if it wasn't for that, doctors today might still be using frogs and poisons to cure diseases. The Black Death also completely reshaped the way England and the world worked and was the cause of the peasant’s revolt.  During the middle ages peasants worked long hard hours and acquired very little money. Many died while they were working and most could not earn enough money to feed their families which resulted in them having to steal to support them. But after the Black Death, the surviving workers earned more money as the lords were short of labourers to work for them.This also resulted in more machinery  being invented to make up for the lost workers.The Black Death was destroyed in England in 1350 after a massive fire burnt down most buildings, rats, fleas and bodies but made recurrences through history although none were as bad as the first and most people were now aware on what needed to be done to stop it from spreading.  

The children's nursery rhyme
Ring a ring a Rosie is based on
the Black Death   

The popular children’s nursery rhyme Ring a ring a Rosie is also based on the Black Death, although many people argue with this. The first verse, Ring a ring a Rosie stands for the red, ring shaped rash victims would get in the first few day of catching the disease, a pocket full of posies is the flowers and herbs people would carry around in their pocket to keep the plague away (paragraph 2, How did fourteenth-century living conditions and the state of medical knowledge leave the population defenceless against serious disease?), atishoo, atishoo is the victims sneezing and we all fall down is when they would finally die. The American version replaces  atishoo atishoo with ashes ashes which refers to the cremation of bodies.                                                                                    

This you tube clip interrupts the lyrics of Ring a ring a Rosie  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaspFUkcPjo

How did people attempt to deal with the disease?

Many people believed they could be cured by plague doctors
or magician

When the Black Death struck Europe and Asia for the first time during the 1300 hundreds, the people of the time were alarmed and horrified as they had never seen a disease spread so fast and become so devastating. As explained before in the last paragraph there were thousands of cures available but unfortunately barley anyone of them worked. Because antibiotics, modern day medicine and hospitals weren't around people had to create their own cures and hope they would work. Many people started turning to churches and Priests as they believed the plague was Gods punishment upon them for doing wrong and some extremists would even whip themselves in the centre of town begging for gods forgiveness. Unfortunately this would not only have been extremely painful but this only spread the disease to more people because of the open wounds. During this time most normal doctors did not treat the victims of the plague instead a “plague doctor” would.  Plague doctors were hired by cities or town to treat victims who had the disease.  Most plague doctors were not actually doctors as they would take the job when they were trying to start their careers as physicians or surgeons, some had even been fruit sellers before they became plague doctors. One of most commons methods plague doctors were taught to do was make small cuts on their patients or put leaches on them to release blood as they believed a plague victims’ blood was full of poison.  Heavy fabric overcoats with glass eyes , big shoes, leather hats , leather gloves and a long cone shaped beak filled with herbs, mint leaves, rose petals and other strong smelling plant life was worn by most plague doctors as protective wear and a long wooden cane was used to examine the patients without actually touching them.  The beak contained strong smelling plants because most people (including doctors) believed it was bad smells that  caused the disease;however we now know that it was fleas that caused the Black  Death.

A plague doctors protective wear 

Some of the  cures that people came up were very unpleasant and  sometimes even harmful  and none of them would be  used these days. Some of them included drinking mercury or arsenic (deadly poisons), wash yourself with  urine but not water (plague doctors advised their patients not to bath in water), or rub your wounds with a live chicken.  Thousands of Jews were also killed as a cure after it was claimed they caused the Black Death. Some of the causes and cures of the black death can be seen in this you tube clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUw8FWtiigA

sources
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/black-death.htm
http://issworldhistory.forumotion.net/t2182-strange-cures-for-the-black-plague

How did fourteenth-century living conditions and the state of medical knowledge leave the population defenceless against serious disease?

The streets during the time of the black death
were dumping grounds for sewerage, rubbish and
 plague ridden bodies. 

14th century living conditions were very different to the way we live today.  During this time people did not know about germs or how diseases form and spread. Because of this many people including doctors believed that it was caused by foul smells or even other people such as the Jews.  The inhabitants of cities and towns saw the streets as dumping grounds and would throw all of their rubbish, scraps and raw sewage out the window. The people of that time didn't realise that it was the rats and the fleas causing the plague so they continued to throw their waste outside giving the rodents a source of food. Most families lived in a small dirty box shaped house along with other families and their animals which is a good reason why the disease spread so fast. Labourers worked all day in fields or with animals such as pigs or cows and did not even think to take a bath or change their clothes which is what we now consider to be unhygienic. There were many “cures” however which just made things worse most of the time. Priests and religious groups blamed the citizens and claimed it was Gods punishment to them for doing bad things.  The doctors of the time and people who believed they were magic created cures that didn't help such as carrying sweet smelling herbs around in your pocket or not bathing or exercising.  Although there were thousands of cures, barley any of them worked and by the time the plague had left Europe, one third of the continents population had died.  

This Horrible histories you tube clip explains what the plague was like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA6nij1kdjE

sources
http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/cbs/pages/bdth/life.htm
http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/plague.htm

What was the Black Death and why did so many people die from it?

The Black Death struck nearly every part
of the human body 

The Black Death was a nasty disease that was spread by fleas and black rats during the middle Ages. It began around central Asia in approximately 1333 and spread to Europe in 1347 beginning in Sicily Italy. After years of being carried back and forward by traders and travellers who would pick up the disease and take it back to their homes with them, it finally made it to England in 1348 and reached London a few months later . The Black Death started off as painful swellings called buboes (as in the bubonic plague) under the armpits or on the legs, neck or groin.  The buboes would start of red and change to dark purple or black (hence the name the Black Death). Victims would also vomit , get very high fevers, have muscular pains, become delusional and have bleeding in their lungs which is why most people died from the disease. Nearly all victims would die within 2 to 4 days. The plague also created a strong need to sleep which became fatal to most victims as they never woke up.During 1348, when the black death was at its peak in Europe, a man called Giovanni Boccaccio who was living in Florence Italy at the time, described what he saw the black death as. this is a shortened version;

"The first signs of the plague were lumps under in the groin or armpits. after this, livid black spots spots appeared on the arms, thighs and other parts of the body. Few Recovered and almost all died within three days". To read the full version of what Boccaccio described the plague as go to: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm.

A map detailing the origins of the black death in
Asia and spreading to the world

The children's television show Horrible histories also describes some symptoms of the Black death as a song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KHlIWpyJrQ

A timeline of the Black Death
 http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/timeline-of-the-black-death